Activists Accept Host’s Second Rape-Row Apology

Activists said they accepted a second on-air apology on Thursday from prominent Hang Meas TV news commentator Meas Rithy for remarks he made last week saying that a rapist and murderer should leave his victim alive to “keep her for using again.”

Earlier this week, the women’s groups had rejected his first apology, in which Mr. Rithy claimed his comments—made during a discussion on his “Morning News Show” about the rape and murder of 18-year-old Sovan Somalin from Preah Vihear province—were only a joke.

The activists, who had organized an online petition, accepted Mr. Rithy’s apology on Thursday because “he seemed to recognize his mistake and he apologized to the audience that was listening, not only to the activists,” said Ou Tepphallin, vice president of Cambodian Food and Service Workers’ Federation, who was involved in drafting and distributing an open letter about Mr. Rithy earlier this week that was submitted to Hang Meas and the women’s affairs and interior ministries.

During the morning news segment on Thursday, Mr. Rithy apologized for “an unintended mistake and for making a joke that affects women.”

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